Welcome

Hey everyone. This is my blog from Benin, Africa. I'll try to write as much about my experience as I can. Hope you all enjoy and feel free to write me as well.

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

April and May

So once again I realize I haven't written in a long time, but I have had a crazy last month. First of all my best friend Steffi ended up having to leave Benin. She had a security threat on her here and so they transfered her to Botswana. I was super upset about it but I am really happy that she gets to go to another awesome country. I am going to go and visit her once I am finished with my service here in Benin. I am really going to miss her but I am lucky that I have a great group of friends over here besides her so I should be ok. Other than that I have had a like 10 birthdays to celebrate this month including mine and my boyfriends. So I have been visiting friends and celebrating a lot. Also I had two trainings last month, one to learn how to teach the new volunteers when they come in, and the other to learn more about malaria and nutritional recuperation. It has been crazy busy and now I don't even have much time to spend in my village before I head home for a week. I am super excited. Oh and I guess I should mention before all this I had the GAD dinner which is what most of my pictures are from. GAD stands for gender and development and it is an NGO started my peacecorps volunteers to help the women of developing countries. We had a big weekend long fundrasier to raise money for volunteers like me to use. We can do many things with the grants from this fundraiser such as teach formations about domestic voilence to painting eduacational murals around our villages. I am actaully going to apply for some money to do a mural at my health center regarding maternal and child health practices. I also in the last month applied for a new job over here. I is called Peace Corps Volunteer Leader. The job entails running the workstations that we have over here in Benin. If I haven't already explaned a workstation, it is like a house where volunteers can stay and work on projects or just get a break. The PCVL wouled also be there to support the volunteers in their areas. I have my interview for in next Monday and then they will tell us who gets the jobs. I would really enjoy doing it because not only do I get to help my fellow volunteers but I would also get to move to a new city, experience new things, and work with new people on new projects. So it could be really exciting. Well that is all I really know right now, my mind is pretty much on heading home at the moment so ill right more after my visit. Au Revoir

Me and Todd

Me and Stephy

Me and Nora

My favorite little girl

Cooking African food in my kitchen

Me Lucy and Nora

Me and my friend Kyle in Parakou

Me and my entourage

My neighbors Fabricio and Ruphinia

About Me

Hi everyone. Well as most of you know I heading to Benin,Africa on July 1st and am so very excited. I just graduated from the University of Missouri with a communications degree. I have worked in a lot of health related fields so I am going to be doing rural community health in Africa and can't wait to start. Other things that I enjoy doing are scuba diving, hiking and reading.